ehud olmert for newsweek
“olmert’s lament” by kevin peraino, from the june 22 issue of newsweek magazine.
i photographed former israeli prime minister ehud olmert for newsweek a few weeks back — wanting to create something a little more unique i brought along my hasselblad and 4×5 field camera.
although olmert is no longer in power the man still has an intense and dominating personality; gravely voiced and blunt, he’s a no bullshit type of guy — which made shooting him with a 4×5 pretty intense. 30 seconds after putting the camera on the tripod (after he pulled a fast one and cut our session time short to begin with) i was composing and focusing for the first sheet of film and he says “ok, we are done?” and gets up to walk away. “no, not yet sir” i say, telling him to please have a seat, and explaining that he must try to stay absolutely still as i shove my head back under the dark cloth to start all over…
but i think it turned out ok and i’m pretty happy with my first 4×5 portrait on assignment. here’s that first shot that i managed to pull off and a triptych sequence showing his sort of awkward bullish lamenting which i thought might be a cool option for the magazine.
